Crawford avalanche., 1887-06-23

Tho Odd Reasons Gives I'm Former Time
f,r foux.l.,.,s Of Nature.


Tho Odd Reasons Gives I'm Former Times
for Convuisions OF Nature.
Prof. Milne passed on to the myths
which attribute earthquakes to Great
ure living underground. says Nature,
describing q lecture delivered In Japan.
In Japan il is an Earthquake insect
covered with scales, aud having eight
legs, or a great fish having certain
rock on his head which helped TO keep
him quiet. In Mongolia the animal is
said to be frog, in India the world
bearing elephant, in tho Celebes o
world-supporting hog, in North Amer
lea a tortoise In Siberia there was q
myth, connected with the great bones
found there, that these were the
remains OF animals that lived under
ground, the trampling of which made
the ground shake. In Kamtchatka the
legend was connected with god, Tuil,
who went out hunting with his dogs.
When these latter stopped to scratch
themselves their movements produced
earthquakes. In Scandinavian mythol-
ogy, Loki, having killed his brother
baldwin, was bound to rock face up
ward, so that the poison Of serpent
should drop on his face. Loki's wife,
however, intercepted the poison in q
vessel, and it was only when she had to
go away to empty the dish that q few
drops reached him and caused him to
writhe and shake the earth.
The lecturer had no means Of collect
ing the fables of the southern hemi.
sphere; but they would obviously he
worth knowing for purposes of com
parison. AS TO quasi scientific theories,
these endeavored to account for earth
quakes as part of the ordinary opera
tions of nature. 1t was supposed, for
instance, that they were produced by
the action of wind confined inside the
earth. The Chinese philosophers said
that Yang, the male element, entered
the earth and caused it to expand, and
to shake the ground in its efforts to
escape. Its effects would be more vio-
lent beneath the mountains than In the
plains, and, therefore, earthquakes IN
the north of China, which was noun
tainous, wore said to be more violent
than those in the south. 1t was sup
posed that when the wind was blowing
strongly on the surface of the eartf
there was calm beneath, and vice versa
Aristotle and many other classica
writer's attributed earthquakes to vino
in the earth. Shakespeare in Henry
w." speaks of the teeming eartl
being pinched and vexed with {
kind of collie by the imprisoned and un
ruly wind within her womb. Then come
tho thoorios of ~loetrivai discharges
which were advocated in 176O by DR.
Stukely, as we'll as by Percival ant
Priestley. They are strongly held il
California at the present day, where j
was believed that the network of rail-
protected the State against any danger
ous accumulation of electricity. Blu
Prof. Milne showed that the layini
down of rails in Japan had no sucl
effect. He thought the electric phe
nomena which sometimes attended,
earthquakes we're their consequences
not their causes. He had himself ex
perimented with dynamite placed in
hole; an earthplate was fixed about
thirty yards away from the dynamite
and from it wire was carried som'
distance to another earth-plate. Whel
the dynamite charge was exploded
there was certainly current produced
as was indicated by strong defectiol
of q galvanometer needle at the end o
the wire. He attributed this to chem
ical action. When the ground wa
shaken there was always greater o
less action by increase or decrease O
pressure in connection with the earth
/ ,.latn